Fiery Oblivion
by Kortamu
Summary: //He says one word, his gaze not leaving mine. "Cloud." He makes a genuine attempt to hide his slight shudder and sharp inhale, but I'm used to people's reactions to my eyes. "I think I know why she looks so much like Sephiroth."// RenoXOC. Rewritten.


Disclaimer: I don't own it, because if I did, Reno would be mine, aaaaaaaaaalllllll miiiiiiiiiine.

* * *

Fiery Oblivion

Exhaustion. Blood. Sweat. The sky stretches on as a too-bright room. There is only the feel of shredded flesh dragging across the barbed wire fence and a vague perception of an impossibly huge and now heavy taser sword jarring a dislocated shoulder as it drags along the ground. I stumble a pace every few moments, slurred memories trying their best to remind me of what had happened...

**_"No- get their flank-"_**

**_Screaming and heat registering in the back of my mind. My brothers running toward me The snarling coming from Nowhere Flash of pain Screaming My throat rawHystericalsatisfiedlaughter"BROTHER!!running She'sawarriorshecandothisNoWaitToostrong"RUN!!"_**

**_They're dead on the ground._**

/Godammit.../ I think, somehow dragging my half-mutilated body along the barbed wire fence. That the thoughts were even there was a miracle in itself. I had been foolish enough to think that I could take on the fiend... it was too strong for me, though. My whole body hurts so much, and the immense heat isn't helping, either. /If I had balls they would've sweated off by now./ My muscles, though strong, can take no more stress. I push them anyway.

My left arm is hanging limply at my side, dislocated at the shoulder, and the right one, which usually holds my huge taser sword, is ripped open in several places. I'm covered in blood, my hair matted with it and sweat. There are claw slashes high on my cheekbones, two on each side at the corners of my eyes, promising to become constant reminders of my brothers' deaths.

I've already lost so much blood, and I wonder briefly how the hell I'm still moving. My hand is cut up from the fence, but the pain isn't there anymore. The nerves are destroyed. I'll be lucky if I can feel anything with it if I survive. /What's the fence here for, anyway?.../ The heat is overwhelming, and I'm just now starting to feel light headed. /Or maybe I'm just now realizing it.../

I have to make sure it follows me. No more brothers have to die. I only have three, and two ad fallen --two I had seen.

My thoughts, incoherent as they are, don't fail to wonder why the blissful oblivion I fall into is fiery red instead of black...

"Hold her down...Careful, yo!"

Pain. An ear-splitting scream.

"Dammit, Cloud! You're only dislocating it more!"

More pain. Don't know from where... Another scream.

"There. Now for the materia..."

"No..." A whisper. Pain. My throat's so dry... "No, Loz... Wait, where's... Kadaj... no..." More whispers. "BROTHER!!" Despite my parched throat and aching limbs, I'm shouting and thrashing about. There are strong hands on my shoulders now, holding me down, keeping me from moving. When I calm down, they help me sit up, and I feel the cool smoothness of a glass being pressed lightly to my lips. I ignore the ache of my muscles as I grab it and down the water.

"Hey, slow down, yo," A voice. It's familiar, though I swear I've never heard it before. I slowly blink my bleary eyes open, wiping the nightmare tears out of them, and realize that most of the pain I felt earlier is gone. My gaze falls to the arms around me, holding me up, and I come to another realization: I've been cleaned up, and my long silver colored hair is brushed back in a low ponytail, much like my human support's. Only his is flame red and spiky.

He moves one of his arms- the one around my waist -and it rests in his lap for a moment, then moves up to brush my bangs behind my ear. He makes a genuine attempt to hide his slight shudder and sharp inhale, but I'm used to people's reactions to my eyes. They're like my brothers'- a bright green at the pupils that fades to mako blue.

He says one word, his gaze not leaving mine. "Cloud."

Someone enters the room, another guy, with spiked blonde hair that hides half his face. "What? Oh, she's awake. Hey there." The arm leaves my back, and the redead gets up and goes to Cloud.

"I think I know why she looks so much like Sephiroth," He says, trailing his already almost inaudible whisper away.

My breath catches when the name falls on my ears. I wish my brothers were here. But I refuse to look weak, even to these people, who have seen me at my weakest... I let myself fall back onto the pillows. "Hn. So you're the famous Cloud Strife," I muse. I can't really get my breath. My strength is back already, but my mind is so agonizingly slow that it almost replaces the pain from before. I close my eyes to get my bearings, but end up falling into the red.

* * *

When I wake, I'm alone. I find my clothes on a chair by the bed and get dressed under the covers.

Someone has washed them- they're quite bloodless now, which is a feat, because the only thing I will wear is black leather. My left pant leg is cut off at the knee, and the right leg, which is tucked into my boot, sports some new slashes on my thigh. I also wear a black tank top, and my sword's sheath is attatched to it, the straps crossing over my chest in an X. I see my trenchcoat hanging over another chair.

"How did you know my last name?" Cloud snaps, coming in. He looks at my sword in the corner, then to me, seemingly startled by my mako eyes. I take advantage of this and advance on him, circling once, looking him over. He hasn't so much as flinched.

"Brother talked about you a lot," I reply, stopping in front of him. I remember his companion. For the first time, in my memory of him I notice his EMR, attatched firmly to his left wrist by way of a leather bracelet and strap with steel clips. I cock my head to the side slightly, and smirk. "Where's Reno?"

"How do you know his?"

"Brother spoke of him often as well."

"He meant your eyes," Cloud says, almost randomly. "They look just like... mine." He snaps his gaze from me to the entering Reno, then back to me. "Just who are your brothers?"

I would tell him, but there is a ringing from his belt. He grabs his phone and flips it open, heading out of the room.

"My brothers..." I begin. Reno turns to me expectantly. "They wouldn't like me being here."

"Where are they?" The Turk wants to know.

I let out a sad, soft chuckle, and send my gaze to the hardwood floor. I smile a little, "The lifestream."

His smirk collapses. "Oh. I'm sorry- I didn't mean to, yo..." His voice fades.

"That's alright. You didn't know. Besides," I add, with a bigger smile and eye contact, "I'm used to death by now." I catch a glimmer of fear /Of what, I don't know/ in his eyes before we both turn to the door.

"Yazoo and Loz are dead," The swordsman announces, slamming the door.

"What? How-" Reno blurts.

"That was Tifa." Cloud explains. "And Kadaj is barely breathing. She wants us there now."

"So he did make it," I mutter. Reno looks at me. If he heard, he's keeping it to himself.

"You comin', yo?"

"I would, but my motorcycle's totaled-"

"Then you can come in the chopper with me," He solutions. "We'll meet you there, Cloud," He yells as the other man

runs out the door again.

"Where's my materia?" I ask Reno, and he moves to pick up my sword, but I stop him. "Don't touch it!" I snap, and he looks at me questioningly.

"Why not, yo?"

He watches me walk past him, and when I pick it up, my arm muscles spasm for a moment, then I regain control over the electrical charge. All the while, he's staring at me. I turn to face him, and he goes to say something, but I cut him off with the tip of my sword under his chin. I'm only letting a small voltage go into his body, but it still makes his muscles flinch. His eye twitches, and he winces. I tilt his head up with the sword; a small flick of my right wrist would kill him. As he glares at me, I let out a small chuckle, and sheath my sword. "That's about a trillionth of what this baby can do," I tell him.

He rubs the stiffness out of his jaw, then takes a step toward me. "Then how did Cloud touch it? And you?" He smirks at his seemingly smartass remark. It'scute how he thinks he knows how his favorite weapon works.

I bring my hand up between our faces, flexing my fingers. "Cloud wears gloves. And I can control it with my bare hands, otherwise you'd've been more of a chick magnet than you are now." It's now, when I move my hand down, that I notice how true my statement is. The red tattoos at the corners of his eyes accent his personality perfectly.

"You know, they've turned blue, yo," Reno states simply. I only know what he's talking about because he runs his right thumb over the scars on my cheeks. I move a couple fingers up to them when he removes his finger. Him being this close -inches away- is more than a little disturbing. Before I know it, a soft, light, wispy kiss has been planted on my lips, and Reno is turning to go to the chopper.

* * *

"Oh my God, Kadaj..." I breathe out as soon as I set my eyes on him. He is bloody, and burnt in several places. I go to the bed, aware that everyone is watching me in either amazement or confusion. When I get there, I take his hand and kneel at his side. He turns his head on the pillow ever so slightly, but I can see the fatal wound already- his throat was slashed.

And not by the fiend, either. There was a sharp object invovled.

"Kaina... dear sister..." he croaks. Kadaj's voice is audible only to me, and hardly even that. "T- take my katana...and kill the Bastard that attacked us." He grimaces from pain.

"Kadaj. Who did this?" I ask the question frantically; I can feel him leaving me as I speak, but he just shakes his head, dissolving into the lifestream. "No! Dammit!" I slam my hand into the wall, narrowly missing the mirror that's set into it. As I gaze into it and see myself reflected, I realize something. My mako cat eyes, my silver hair, my scars... with my brothers gone, my only family, I am the last of my kind.

"I swear to you, brother. They will pay." I turn to the door, and am startled see the last person I thought to ever come in contact with: Rufus Shinra.


End file.
